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Zulu King Breaks Ties To Buthelezi

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The King of the Zulus today broke off relations with Mangosuthu G. Buthelezi, the powerful Zulu nationalist leader, setting up a potentially fratricidal battle for leadership of South Africa's largest ethnic group.

The King, Goodwill Zwelithini, and his princes announced early this morning that the King would "sever all ties" with Mr. Buthelezi after rock-throwing followers of the nationalist leader stormed the royal palace and disrupted a visit by President Nelson Mandela.

Tonight an aide said the King had left the palace with an army escort and his official entourage, fearing for his safety.

A fight for the loyalty of the seven million Zulus no longer poses the dire national threat that it did before the April elections, when many feared that disorder in the predominantly Zulu province of KwaZulu/ Natal could make a fair election impossible.

The announcement today was a humiliation for Mr. Buthelezi, who rebuilt the scattered Zulu nation into a formidable and often bellicose engine of ethnic politics and deployed it against Mr. Mandela's African National Congress.

Thanks in large part to the emotional pull of the Zulu monarchy and the vote-mustering power of tribal chiefs, the Inkatha Freedom Party of Mr. Buthelezi narrowly won a majority in the provincial legislature. He also secured three seats in Mr. Mandela's unity Cabinet, including his own post as Minister of Home Affairs.

Mr. Buthelezi, who is a royal cousin and claims the title of "traditional prime minister" to the King, has shown every sign of being willing to challenge the King if necessary to retain his control of the potent tribal political machine.

Since the elections, as the King has gradually distanced himself from Inkatha and moved closer to Mr. Mandela, Mr. Buthelezi has responded with thinly veiled threats, embarrassing revelations about the King's high living, and assertions that the King was being duped by turncoats in the royal family.

While the King is the symbolic center of the nation, he has not been much of a political operator. Mr. Buthelezi has coopted much of the tribal network under his own control, and, abetted by officials of the apartheid police, has helped secure them weapons and training in military tactics.

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King Goodwill, who is 46 years old, ascended to the throne in 1971 and for a time tried to assert himself as a political force. Mr. Buthelezi, who is 20 years older, used his power as leader of the KwaZulu apartheid homeland to put the young King in his place.

In the ensuing years Mr. Buthelezi built up the King as the embodiment of Zulu nationalism.

As President Mr. Mandela has gently courted the King, while striving to avoid antagonizing Mr. Buthelezi. The President agreed to let the King be trustee of vast tribal lands. He provided an army contingent to replace the palace guard appointed by Mr. Buthelezi. He has pushed to entrench the King's powers and budget in the province constitution.

Today's climactic falling out began when the King invited Mr. Mandela to attend the annual holiday next Saturday honoring Shaka, the 19th- century conquerer regarded as the founder of the Zulu nation.

Mr. Buthelezi objected to being bypassed, and demonstrated his displeasure by organizing a boycott of the King's annual Reed Dance last week, a kind of debutantes' ball where Zulu maidens present themselves to the King.

When the three leaders met on Monday at the palace in Enyokeni to resolve the disagreement, a mob of young Inkatha supporters surged into the compound, chanting slogans against Mr. Mandela and stoning the palace and the presidential helicopter.

Early this morning the King's legal adviser, S. S. Mathe, emerged from a meeting of the royal house to proclaim the events an insult to the dignity of the King and the Zulu nation.

"A resolution was taken by His Majesty and members of the royal house that all Shaka Day commemoration services for 1994 are hereby canceled and the King must not meet Buthelezi again," the adviser announced, according to the South African Press Association.

Mr. Buthelezi insisted to reporters in Cape Town today that the rift was only a "rumor" and that the holiday would be observed.

"Any cancellation is bound to inflame anger against the King," Mr. Buthelezi warned.

A version of this article appears in print on September 21, 1994, on Page A00011 of the National edition with the headline: Zulu King Breaks Ties To Buthelezi. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe